Nintendo to Consolidate Hardware Development

[Screamapillar]

Vinniegambini said:

Mummelmann said:

skyehoppers said:

There are those who predicted that this exact thing would happen due to the Wii U aiming for two markets at once and the rise of the tablet and social game. Seeing it progress like this makes it likely that those were right, in the big picture Nintendo is in a very dire position unless trends change fairly soon (which I could elaborate at a later time if you'd like). Are the Wii U sales disastrous? No, no they're not. Could they be a prelude to a disaster? Yes, yes they can and its fairly plain to see. Nintendo are losing money (and have been for some time) basically for the first time since they started up decades ago.

They never said that. Nintendo is a very conservative business. I believe Reggie was right when he said that all it takes is one game for their equation to be profitable. However, he mistakingly did not take into consideration the investments Nintendo made in R & D and marketing. When one takes that into account, it could point towards 2 games. 

On a side note, the Gamecube when launched was sold at a loss of 9$ per unit. This is not the first time.

In regards to profits, I think what's going on right now is that the 3DS side of their business is profitable, and becoming more profitable as time goes on, since hardware no longer sells at a loss, software is picking up, and the system seems to be gaining popularity, as it's yet to hit it's peak year (likely this year).  So Nintendo can afford to sell Wii U at a slight loss (I assume it's much closer to GameCube's initial loss than 3DS's after the markdown in 2011) in order to help sales, so 3DS can carry the load for a year or so while Wii U manufacturing costs come down and they break even, and then eventually become profitable on both systems, which is when they'll be back to making bank again until the next cycle five years from now.